Social enterprises that operate in business-to-business contexts, often out of emerging economies, typically face high expectations from business clients, mainstream competition, and the challenge of operating across distances. In these contexts, social enterprises need to carefully choose which market segments to serve and how to organize their social mission accordingly. Based on the case of impact sourcing—hiring and training of disadvantaged staff for global business services—we seek to better understand this interplay. In general, we find that social enterprises in this (...) context focus on serving either domestic clients with an implicit social mission and an integrated social enterprise model or international clients with a more explicit social mission and a decoupled model. We discuss why both main configurations represent viable social enterprise models in the outsourcing industry, and why, in particular, the professional background of founders plays a key role in these strategic choices. Our findings contribute to a more nuanced and context-sensitive understanding of social enterprise model adoption in emerging economies. (shrink)

The concept of social entrepreneurship emerged as a significant factor that contributes toward public welfare and prosperity. Recent studies showed that social entrepreneurship influences the economic growth and sustainability of the state. Therefore, the underlying aim of this study was to investigate the impact of social entrepreneurship on sustainable economic growth and value creation. This study also undertook to observe the mediating role of innovation in the relationship between social entrepreneurship and sustainable economic growth and between social entrepreneurship and value (...) creation. A questionnaire technique was adopted to obtain data from 343 tour operators in China. The Smart-PLS software was used to analyze the data through the aid of a structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. The results revealed that social entrepreneurship has an effect on sustainable economic growth and value creation. The results also demonstrated that innovation has an effect on sustainable economic growth and value creation. Moreover, it was also observed that innovation mediated the relationship between social entrepreneurship and sustainable economic growth and between social entrepreneurship and value creation. Theoretically, this study made a valuable contribution by examining the impact of social entrepreneurship on sustainable economic growth and value creation and innovation as a mediator. In terms of practical implications, this study would certainly aid the policymakers to devise policies and strategies aim to encourage and promote social entrepreneurship. Moreover, future studies can introduce other mediating and moderating variables in order to gain a deeper insight into the phenomenon. (shrink)

We investigate what distinguishes social entrepreneurial ecosystems (SEEs) from entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) through appreciation of the importance of context—the multiplex of intertwined social, spatial, temporal, historical, cultural, and political influences. Community is incorporated as a key variable and hitherto overlooked dimension of the structure and influence of SEEs. We draw on extant literature and examples of a variety of SEEs to support our propositions and demonstrate why considerations of both context and community are critical to advance understanding of SEEs. We (...) contribute to the study of SEEs by presenting a new conceptual framework and theorizing SEE as an evolving composite of interdependent actors who interact and collaborate across multiple levels to collectively generate positive externalities and drive sustainable solutions to social problems. (shrink)

Although the simultaneous presence of multiple ambitions is inherent in hybrid venturing, pursuing social and/or environmental missions while securing commercial viability can generate ambivalence among stakeholders. In this study, we draw on the notion of “holism” to show how venture founders both embrace tensioned ambitions and sustain hybridity during critical venture development phases. Based on 6 years of data on The People’s Supermarket in the United Kingdom, we identify three distinct practices— fantasizing, bartering, and conjuring—used by founders to harness tensions (...) productively, without compromising their venture’s multiple ambitions. These practices demonstrate the founders’ ability to maintain a venture’s hybrid nature throughout the ideation, organizational, and scale-up phases, thereby shedding light on the application of “holism” within the realm of hybrid venturing. (shrink)